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WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 



MABEL S. EMERY. 

H 


W'ith Illustrations by Edith N. Clark. 


BOSTON: 

UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE.^'-> ^A»m’'- 5 

1894. "5 j 




Copyright, 1894, 

Universalist Publishing House. 






Typography and Electrotyping by 
C. J. Peters & Son, Boston. 


IN MEMORY OF 


“Prur,” 

WHO WENT AWAY TO GROW UP IN 


A BETTER COUNTRY, 
THAT IS, 

AN HEAVENLY, 

THESE STORIES OF OLD TIMES ARE 


I NSCRI BED. 



r 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER. PAGE. 

I. Where We Lived 9 

II. About the Dogs 14 

III. Four Little Farmers 21 

IV. The Horse that went in Swimming 24 

V. Down by the Pond 28 

VI. When it Rained 35 

VII . School, and Home Again 39 

VTH. Being Sick 47 

IX. Going to Church 52 

X. Thanksgiving at Grandpa’s 61 

XL Naughty Girls 68 

XII. In the Winter Time 77 

XIIL How We Moved 83 

XIV. The Candy Woman 88 

XV. P^riends and Holidays 93 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


j PAGE 

Where We Lived Frontispiece 2 

^Four Little Farmers 

J 

Taking Prue’s Picture 2^ 

'•’When Bell was Sick 46 ^ 

Grandpa’s End of the Table 60 

^OuR Camp Fire 76 

Playing “Cinderella” 02 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


CHAPTER I. 

WHERE WE LIVED. 

^HERE were four of us, — all girls, — Nancy and 
Bell and Pink and Prue. Nancy was three years 
older than I, and Pink and Prue were the twins. It 

was a large house in which we lived, and it stood 

quite by itself, with no near neighbors, behind a 
great pond. If you were coming to visit us, you 
would leave the city, with its noisy shops and fac- 
tories and hurrying teams, and pass through pleasant- 
open streets, with small fields and gardens and 
houses on either side, until you came to the edge 

of the pond. There you would find a little beach, 
all pebbly and clean, with the water lapping the 

smooth stones, and just beyond the beach a gate. 


9 


lO 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


and very likely some boys fishing from the rocks 
near by. Sometimes they caught quite large fish, 
if they waited long enough. One of these boys 
would run to open the gate, and you would ride 
on, thinking you were certainly going straight into 
the woods that looked so thick and dark just ahead. 
But the road would go winding along beside the 
edge of the pond, until all at once it would lead 
you up around a small hill, and then you would see 
the house. 

Our house stood half-way up a hill, thick woods 
close behind it and grassy fields in front, with the 
pond between us and the rest of the town. We 
could see houses on the farther side, and a dark 
church steeple standing out against the sky, and be- 
yond that a little bit of the blue waters of the ocean, 
with white-sailed boats a long way off. Sometimes, 
when the kitchen clock stopped, mamma would say, 
“ Now it is almost noon ; run out and see who can 
hear the bells down town ringing for twelve o’clock, 
so I can set the clock just right.” Then Nancy and 
I would go out, and perch on the stone wall beside 


WHERE WE LIVED. 


I I 

the driveway leading up to the door, and listen. 
And Pink and Prue would come following after (they 
were very little girls indeed ; just big enough to run 
about and fall down, and pick themselves up again 
without making much fuss about it). And then we 
would all four sit on the wall, and swing our feet 
and listen. And by and by we would hear the 
whistle from one of the great mills, and then the 
different church-bells would begin to ring faintly and 
afar off, and we would scramble up as fast as ever 
we could, to see which would reach the house first. 

Close behind the back door a high, steep bank 
ran up to the edge of the woods, and on this 
bank grew violets and small yellow flowers that we 
called baby-buttercups. It was a warm, sunny bank, 
even in winter ; and once when we found the vio- 
lets trying to come out and blossom before it was 
time for them, papa made little paper tents to put 
over the tiny plants every night, and keep them 
safe and warm. And so we had blue violets at the 
back door while the pond was still frozen over. 

The room that we liked best of all in the house 


12 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


was the playroom up in the attic. It was a big 
square room with a bare floor and two windows. 

Nancy and I could see through the lower panes^ 
but Pink and Prue had to climb up in a chair 
when they wished to look out. There was a trundle- 
bed in one corner of the room, — a low bed with 

a sort of fence around the sides, so we should not 
roll out and bump our heads ; and all around the 
room we had our playthings just as we pleased, — 
the dolls and the tea-sets and the wooden blocks ; 
and the doll-houses made out of wooden boxes, and 
the little iron stove on which we played getting 
dinner. We did not have a real fire inside, but 

the things cooked just as well. And here, too, we 
used to play tag and puss-in-the-corner. 

Nancy’s doll was the largest ; she had real shoes 
and a black silk apron, and her name was Lily. 
Mine was named Jessie ; she had a china head, 
with blue eyes, and yellow hair in a net, and a big 
china feather on one side. She slept every night 

in a yellow wooden bedstead, with a patchwork spread 
of red-and-white calico. The bedstead was a little 


WHERE WE LIVED. 


13 


too short, so that I had to double her legs under 
her body when I tucked her in. 

When we went to bed ourselves, mamma used 
to tell us stories. She knew a great many ; but the 
one we liked best was a piece of poetry about a little 
girl named Phoebe, who was very poor, and spilled 
her blackberries so that she could not buy a bonnet 
to wear to church. The story, said that her father 
worked in a stall, so we supposed that he must 
have taken care of the horses ; and we always 
thought the bonnet that the other girl gave her was 
a sun-bonnet such as we wore every day, with strings 
to tie and a cape of blue-and-white gingham sewed on 
behind. 


WHEN WE WE EE LITTLE. 




CHAPTER II. 

ABOUT OUR DOGS. 

pAPA was often away all day; Mike, the man who 
took care of the horses, had to go down town to 
his work, and mamma and Elizabeth and the four 
little girls were left at home. Then Lion took care 
of the family. Lion was a very large, shaggy, black 
dog, with white breast and paws, and a sober, honest 
face. If we went down by the pond to sail our boats, 
or over towards the hill to pick the yellow “ wood- 
wax,” Lion always went too, wagging his tail in the 
most friendly way, and watching to see that no harm 
happened to us. When night was coming on. Lion 
would go lie on the steps by the side door to guard 
the house ; and at every strange sound down in the 
fields or about the barn, he would start up and growl, 
as if to say, “ Keep off! Nobody shall come to hurt 
these people. I am taking care of them till the 


ABOUT OUR DOGS. I 5 

master comes home.” Then by and by there would 
be the sound of wheels and a horse’s feet, and papa 
would come riding up the hill. And as soon as papa 
reached home Lion felt that everything was safe. 
Then he would leave his post on the doorsteps, and 
come in and take a nap on his favorite rug. 

One winter day papa made a harness, so that Lion 
mieht draw Pink and Prue in their little sleieh. 
They thought it was great fun, and Lion liked it 
too ; in fact, he liked it so well that he afterwards 
made us a great deal of trouble when we were out 
sliding, by coming up just as we were ready at the 
top of the hill, and standing directly in front of the 
sled, to beg us to harness him. 

Buff was the other dog, — a little brown spaniel, 
with curly hair and long, soft ears. I shall never 
forget the dreadful time we had one day, when, just 
for fun, we put a cap of burdock-burrs on his head. 
It was easy enough to put the cap on, but it would 
not come off. The burrs stuck fast to the curly 
locks, and it was many a long day before we suc- 
ceeded in picking them all out, and leaving the soft 


1 6 WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 

ears as pretty as before. Prue had curly hair too ; 
and she used to call Buff her brother. When Nancy 
and I were racing through the tall grass, and looked 
behind to see Pink and Prue and the two dogs fol- 
lowing after, if we caught a glimpse of a curly head 
bobbing up in sight, we could not be sure at first 
whether it was Prue’s, or only Buff’s. 

Old Lion took care of Buff as well as of us 
children. When he thought the little dog was really 
too silly with his jumping and barking and scamper- 
ing, he would give one severe growl, to say, “ Do try 
to behave better ! ” One day both dogs went into the 
kitchen, and saw a pair of chickens laid on a low 
table, ready to be cooked for dinner.. Naughty Buff 
was going to steal one, and run away with it ; but 
Lion lay down in front of the table, and would not 
let the saucy puppy take even one good smell of the 
tempting legs. 

But when Lion was not close by to see that Buff 
did right, sad things happened. Mamma lost one of 
her best gloves ; Elizabeth could not find the feather 
duster ; and one of Pink’s striped stockings was miss- 


ABOUT OUR DOGS. IJ 

ing from the clothes-basket. At last something hap- 
pened that was queerer than all the rest. I had a 
little wooden doll named Rose, whom I loved next 
to the china-headed Jessie. She was bought at a 
church fair, and wore a beautiful dress of pink tarle- 
tan. One morning I left her on a bench by the side 
door, while I went with Nancy and Pink and Prue to 
bury a little dead robin, down behind the barn ; and 
when we came back. Rose was nowhere to be found. 
We hunted the whole house over; and mamma and 
Elizabeth searched too, but it was of no use. Rose 
was gone. 

One day, ever so long afterwards, we saw Buff 
coming out from the hole under the back kitchen, 
where he loved to hide, carrying something in his 
mouth. We called him, and he came, waving his 
plaything in the air. And behold, — it was a feather 
from Elizabeth’s duster, and the body of my dear 
Rose, her pretty petticoats all dirty and draggled 
and torn, and her round wooden head chewed com- 
pletely off. 

Once Lion and Buff' did a fine thing, for which 


1 8 WHEN WE WERE LITTLE, 

they were praised and petted. Pink was lost. We 
called and shouted and looked for her in every 
place we could think of. Then we called the two 
dogs, and said, “Where is Pink? Go find Pink.” 

And very soon the big dog and the little dog 
were both out in the carriage-house barking for us to 
come. They had found Pink in the carryall fast 
asleep. She had climbed in to play “go to ride,” 
and had taken a long nap instead, curled upon the 
back seat. 






Four Little Farmers. 



FOUR LITTLE FARMERS. 


21 


CHAPTER III. 

FOUR LITTLE FARMERS. 

|~^OWN in the field between our house and the 
pond, there was a deep hollow with steep sides. 
We called it the Sliding Bowl, because it was a fine 
place to slide in winter. If we started with our sleds 
from the top of one side, the sled would carry us not 
only to the bottom, but half-way up the other side 
as well. 

In summer-time the whole slope was smooth and 
grassy. Down in the middle of the Bowl, Mike had 
cut out some square pieces of grassy turf to mend the 
bank about the house, and that left little brown fields 
of bare ground scattered here and there. “ Let us 
have farms here, and raise pease and strawberries 
and roses,” said Nancy, as we stood looking at them 
one day. That was a fine idea. We divided the 
spaces, and each had a little garden all by herself. 


22 


WHEAT WE WERE LITTLE. 


Elizabeth gave us some potatoes and beans and 
flower-seeds, and mamma provided some old spoons 
and dull knives for the digging. Then, of course, 
gardens must be watered, and we needed a well. 
Nancy ran up to the house and begged an old tin 
pail that was not good to use any longer in the 

kitchen. We dug a hole in the ground deep enough 
to let the pail sink down level with the earth, and 
then we smoothed the dirt up nicely around the 

edges. There was our well. When we wished to 
water the gardens, we carried a canful of water down 

from the house, and poured it into the well ; then 

we tied a string to one of the dolls’ pails, and let 
it carefully down into the well, filling it and drawing 
it up to sprinkle the young plants. 

My pease grew beautifully : they were as tall as my 
arm before the summer ended ; and Nancy’s potato- 
plants were so stout and green that she felt very 
proud of them. Prue’s potatoes did not succeed so 
well. Prue was a very neat little girl, and she wished 
to have everything done as nicely as possible ; so 
before she planted her potatoes she washed and peeled 


FOUR LITTLE FARMERS. 


25 

them very carefully, just as she had seen Elizabeth 
do in the kitchen. She expected a particularly fine 
crop, but, strangely enough, not one ever came up. 

Farmers must raise hay as well as vegetables ; so 
we cut large handfuls of grass with our rusty knives 
and spoons, and let it dry in the sun till it was brown 
and sweet. Mike gave us some old shingles, and with 
these we built four little barns to hold our harvest. 

But all farmers have trouble. Sometimes the water 
ran out of a hole in the bottom of our well before 
we had drawn up all we needed, and then somebody 
must go away up to the house for more. And some- 
times Lion and Buff would walk straight over our 
fields, and we had to scold them and drive them away. 
One day Lion wagged his tail so hard against my 
barn that he knocked it all down, and after that we 
played the two dogs were earthquakes. 


24 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


CHAPTER IV. 

THE HORSE THAT WENT IN SWIMMING. 

HERE were two horses in the barn, — one was 



Eldorado, a great, heavy cart-horse with big feet, 
and the other was Katy. We used to stand and watch 
Mike while he cleaned them, rubbing down their legs 
with a rough sort of brush made of iron bristles. 
Sometimes, when Mike felt very good-natured, he let 
us take turns in riding up and down the stable floor, 
while he held us on Eldorado’s back. It seemed 
dreadfully high up in the air after we were fairly 
mounted, and the horse’s back wobbled about as he 
walked ; so, though we were always teasing for a 
chance to ride, we were glad to feel the firm grasp of 
Mike’s big hand holding us on, and very willing to 
be jumped down to the floor when our turn was 


over. 


Katy was the horse that papa drove when he went 


THE HORSE THAT WENT IN SWIMMING. 


25 


down town. She was fond of apples and sugar, and 
she especially enjoyed wading in water. When we 
went to ride in the big carryall, our journey was 
oftenest to the seashore, where a long sandy beach 
stretched out for miles, and where we could pick up 
seaweed and shells, and little long-legged red crabs. 
Then, when we had filled our baskets, and climbed 
once more into the carryall, papa would drive Katy 
down to the water, so that tiny waves would break 
over the lower edge of the wheels. This delighted 
Katy. She loved to splash her feet in the water, and 
to feel the waves coming in around her ankles. Pink 
and Prue were sometimes afraid that the water would 
carry us off as if we were in a boat ; but Katy had 
no fear at all, and papa always made her turn around 
and go back to the dry sand before she had waded 
too far. 

One day papa was coming home from the factory 
with Katy and the open buggy. He rode up to the 
big gate beside the edge of our pond, and jumped out 
to speak a moment to Duxbury Sands, the man who 
lived in the house near the tall elm-tree. While 


26 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


they talked Katy grew tired of waiting, and walked 
slowly down to the pebbly shore where she had often 
been driven in to drink. 

“ She is thirsty,” thought papa. “ Very well ; she 
may wait upon herself if she likes,” and he went 

on talking. 

But Katy did not stop to drink. She waded in 
until the water was above her ankles, dragging the 
new buggy after her. She waded in farther, until 

the water reached her knees. 

“Whoa, Katy!” called papa. “That is deep enough 
for a drink.” But Katy calmly kept on. 

“Whoa!” called papa and Duxbury Sands to- 
gether ; but the little brown horse would not lis- 
ten. ^ She went on and on, till the water was up 
to her neck, and then she began to swim like a 

dog. 

Papa and Duxbury Sands ran to a boat that 

lay near by. There were no oars in it. What 
should they do now ? But they pulled twO rails 
off the fence, and paddled out after the runaway. 
By this time she had reached very deep water 


THE HORSE THAT WENT IN SWIMMING. 27 

indeed. A piece of iron that helped fasten the 
buggy together dropped out of its place, and the 
body of the wagon, together with the hind wheels, 
sank to the deep bottom of the pond, while Katy 
carried the shafts and the forward wheels along 
with her. Papa and Duxbury Sands rowed out be- 
yond her, and finally made her go in towards the 
shore and climb up the bank, all dripping wet, with 
the two wheels following after. 

“I never saw such a horse in all my life!” said 
the neighbor. “ How do you suppose you will ever 
get your buggy^ again ? ” 

They did find the wagon after an anxious search, 
— just where it dropped; and they pulled it up out of 
the water with long poles. Katy decided that going 
in swimming was not so nice as she had thought 
it would be, and ever afterwards she was quite will- 
ing to wait at the gate as long as any body desired. 


28 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


CHAPTER V. 

DOWN BY THE POND. 

were quite small girls to be trusted near a 
pond; but Nancy was eight, and very wise, and 
we all knew that if ever we did really fall into the 
water, we should not be allowed to play there any 
more, so we were always very careful. In any case, 
nothing worse than . getting our clothes wet could 
very well have happened, for Lion was always near 
by; and if we had fallen in he would have liked 
nothing better than pulling us out again safe and 
sound. 

When we were starting for the shore to play, 
we took our boats and some ginger-snaps and a 
few of the smaller dolls. The boats were little 
flat pieces of wood, with one mast and a paper 
sail. Eirst Nancy bored a hole with a gimlet in 
the middle of the flat slip of wood ; then she whit- 


JDOWJV BY THE POND. 


29 

tied a small, slender stick with our old knife, until 
one end would fit tightly into the hole. That was 
the mast. Then she cut a piece of newspaper 
as big as her hand, and fastened it to the boat by 
tearing three or four little holes in a row down 

the middle and running the mast through these 

holes, as a needle is run through a piece of cloth. 
And there was a fine boat all finished ! 

We went down the steep driveway, and across 
the road and through a field, with the two dogs 
following after, and presently we came to our favorite 
place along the shore. It was a little cove or bay 
where the water was always warm, and the shore 

was strewn with smooth pebbles, ready to build 

wharves and houses and walls around our harbors. 
Sometimes we put very small pebbles and grass and 
flowers on the flat boats for a cargo, and the smaller 
dolls went as passengers. We tied strings to the 
boats so that we could pull them in whenever we 
wished, and they could not sail out of reach. 
Sometimes they tipped over and spilled the cargo ; 
but we had learned not to trust them with our 


30 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


ginger-snaps, and if pebbles were lost overboard, 
there were plenty more to be had. 

One day Nancy’s biggest and finest boat had just 
sailed out of her harbor with Agnes for a passenger, 
when we heard Elizabeth ringing a bell to call us to 
the house. 

“ Agnes shall have a nice long sail while we are 
gone,” said Nancy ; and she tied the string to a bush 
beside the shore, leaving the little black-eyed doll 
lying on her back on deck, staring up at the sail. 

But something happened after dinner so that we 
did not return to the pond that day ; and when we 
went down the next morning, there was the boat sail- 
ing proudly at the end of the string, but no Agnes 
anywhere to be seen. 

“Do you suppose she’s drowned?” asked Prue. 
“ And she had on her very best dress ! ” 

But presently we saw Agnes lying on the bottom 
of the harbor, and looking up with her eyes wide 
open. We poked with a long stick, and finally we 
pulled her out. Her china head and arms and feet 
were not hurt a bit by soaking over night, but her 


DOIVA^ BY THE POND. 


31 


Lest dress was indeed a sorry sight, and as for her 
cloth body — it was all spotted with stains of mildew, 
like great gray freckles. She had another dress that 
very day, and Elizabeth dried her in the oven on a 
plate ; but as long as she lived she never quite recov- 
ered from the mildew stains. 

Another thing we liked down by the pond was 
playing in the little huts built by Duxbury Sands. 

Duxbury Sands lived in the white house out by 
the street, near the gate and the pebbly beach and 
the tall elm-tree. He had a gun, and sometimes 
shot birds for the market. We used to suppose he 
was called “Duxbury” because he shot ducks. Wild 
ducks are very shy, and a hunter must take care to 
keep out of their sight, — so Mr. Sands had built low 
huts in two or three places along the pond shore in 
which he could hide with his gun. He could not 
stand up straight in them, but we were smaller, and 
the houses were just right to play in. They were 
built of rough boards and boughs of trees ; each one 
had a door that would shut, and one tiny window in 
front looking out on the water. They made fine 
playhouses. 


32 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


Sometimes we made believe the huts were forts. 
Then Pink and I were early settlers, and Nancy and 
Prue were wild Indians coming to attack us and carry 
us off for prisoners. Then we shut the door tight 
and stayed inside, with Lion wagging his tail beside 
us. Pretty soon we heard the Indians coming shout- 
ing outside ; and Buff ran and barked and pawed at 
the door, and Nancy and Prue pretended to shoot 
arrows at us, and we tried to drive them away. And, 
finally, after we were taken prisoners, and led off with 
our hands tied together, we all sat down on the bank, 
Indians and settlers and dogs and all, and ate the 
ginger-snaps that Elizabeth gave us, and drank water 
from the pond out of clean blue clam-shells. 


4 











Taking Prue’s Picture. 


IT RAINED. 


35 


CHAPTER VI. 

WHEN IT RAINED. 

jN pleasant weather we played out-of-doors almost 

all the time, but now and then came long rainy 
days when we must stay in-doors and amuse ourselves 
in other ways. 

Sometimes we played at having our pictures taken. 
VVe drew Pink’s high-chair out into the middle of 
the room, and threw a red plaid shawl of Nancy’s 
over the top of it, to look like a camera. Then 
Nancy played that I was an artist, and she was a 
grown - up lady, and Pink and Prue were her two 
little girls. 

“ Good - afternoon. I would like to have my 
children’s pictures taken.” 

“ Yes, ma’am. Tell your little girl to sit down 
there in that chair, and look straight at the clock.” 

Then I put my head in under the shawl, and 
peeped out through the back of the chair. 


36 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


“ Now sit very still till I tell you to move.” 

A slate and pencil lay ready on the seat of 
the chair, and while Prue sat waiting I drew her 
picture on the slate, and we played it was a photo- 
graph in a gilt frame. Then Pink and Nancy had 
to sit for their pictures too ; and sometimes mamma 
and Elizabeth would take their turn with the rest. 
They always sat very still ; but Pink used to laugh 
when she saw me looking out at her through the 
back of the chair, from under the red shawl. 

Sometimes we made paper dolls. Papa gave us 
scraps of old letters and colored envelopes, and 
mamma found strips of gay wall-paper up in the 
storeroom, all covered with flowers and gilt figures, 
and most beautiful for party dresses. Sometimes we 
played school ; or we went visiting with our big dolls. 
But best of all we loved our little china dolls and 
their wooden houses. 

My doll-house was made of two old soap-boxes 
set up on their sides. One was a parlor and the 
other a bedroom. The parlor had a carpet of green 
paper with a little gold figure in it, and the walls 


WHEN IT RAINED. 


37 


were papered in pink and white. On one side of the 
room papa had sawed out a window, and over this 
were draped curtains of white tissue paper. The 
furniture was made of iron, and painted blue and 
^old. Pictures cut from old magazines were pinned 
upon the walls, and one wee bit of a blue book, 
about half as long as your smallest finger, lay on 
the centre-table. The bedroom was made like the 
parlor, only smaller, and the bedstead had a real 
mattress and pillows, and sheets that tucked in. We 
had no lamps ; but I used to take a pewter gob- 
let from my tea-set, and set a big yellow marble on 
the top of the bowl, and it looked quite like a tall 
lamp all lighted. Our one stove was too big to go 
inside either room, so I never had a whole kitchen; 
but I used to set the dinner-table in the parlor, 
and draw up the little iron chairs for the two small 
dolls, Maud and Blanche. They lived on popcorn 
most of the time. Once in a while they had oyster- 
crackers, or a slice of an apple ; and when papa 
brought home a box of figs we played Thanksgiving. 
A nice, plump fig looks very much like a stuffed and 


38 WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 

roasted turkey when you pat it out smooth, and lay 
it all by itself on a doll’s plate. 

Nancy and I used to take our families visiting 
in each other’s houses ; and when we wished to give 
a very large party we invited all the paper dolls, 
as well as the china people. Then, as there was 
not room for everybody at the table at once, a part 
of the company had to wait, and it took a long 
time to serve them all. We found it a great care 
to keep house and give large parties. 


SCHOOL, AND HOME AGAIN 


39 


CHAPTER VIL 
SCHOOL, AND HOME AGAIN. 

I NEVER knew just how or when I learned to read. 

Nancy could read, and I always wished to do 
whatever Nancy did, so in some way or other I very 
soon found out the names of the letters on our red 
and yellow wooden blocks, and after that it did not 
take long to spell out the short stories in “ Mother 
Goose” and the “First Reader.” Our “ Mother Goose” 
was a dear old book. It had been bought for Nancy 
when she was a wee bit of a girl. It had pages of 
cloth instead of paper, and was full of pictures ; but 
the picture that charmed me more than all the rest, 
showed a man with his mouth wide open, just about 
to swallow the tiny house of the “ old woman called 
Nothing-at-all.” I thought how nice it would be to 
have a doll-house like that, with a front door and a 
chimney. 


40 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


But one must learn other lessons besides those in 
“ Mother Goose,” and, for a little while in the sum- 
mer, Nancy and I went to school. 

The school-house was a long way off, and our 
path lay through the fields beside the pond. We 
could never go when it had been raining, or when it 
looked as if it might be going to rain, or when there 
was to be a picnic, or when we had a headache, or 
when Elizabeth wanted some pease picked for dinner ; 
so, on the whole, I am afraid we were not very 
punctual scholars. But, whenever we did go, we 
minded the rules, and learned our lessons, so the 
teachers were always very kind to us. There were two 
teachers in our school. Miss Laura, who heard the 
lessons of the very little folks, was tall and fair, and 
we were all very fond of her. Nancy’s class was in 
charge of the short, black-eyed teacher, whom I did 
not know so well. I had a big card with the multipli- 
cation tables printed on it, and a slate, and a “Second 
Reader,” and an arithmetic full of pictures of groups 
of boys and chickens and tops and roses and ships. 
The questions were all about the things in the pic- 


SCHOOL, AND HOME AGAIN. 41 

tiires. Every day Miss Laura gave the best children 
a little slip of white paper with “Good” written on 
it ; and when one had twelve of these “ Goods ” she 
could give them back to the teacher, and receive a 
Reward-of-Merit in exchange, to be kept always. A 
Reward-of-Merit was a bright-colored card with a pic- 
ture or a verse of poetry upon it, to show that we 
had done well at school ; and down in the corner 
were written one’s own name and the teacher’s name, 
in most beautiful quirly handwriting, all shaded like a 
copy-book. 

Sometimes, when I had read my lesson over and 
over, and could answer all the questions about the 
tops and the chickens, I used to sit and listen to the 
recitations of the big boys and girls who “ parsed ” 
and did long examples on the blackboard. They 
were very old and wise. I wondered if, I could 
possibly ever learn to know as much as they did ; 
and I thought their jokes and secrets were something 
to be greatly respected and envied. One of the 
largest girls wore a blue bow on the rubber comb 
that held her hair back: she was very pretty, and I 


42 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


named my next new doll after her, because I thought 
Fanny was such a beautiful name. 

The last thing at night we put our books and 
slates away in the big desks, and sat with our arms 
folded, while we sang the songs we had learned from 
our teachers. Then we filed out into the entries to 
put on our “ things ” and go home. 

“ Hurry up ! ” Nancy would cry, tying her Shaker- 
bonnet under her chin. “ Come on ! — I’m most 
starved.” And then we scampered across the street, 
and through the Winchesters’ backyard, and out 
through the long lane that led towards the pond. 
There was one very interesting place on the way ; 
that was the arch at the foot of the hill. 

This arch was a sort of tunnel or passage-way, 
where a brook ran under the road in the spring 
months. After warm weather came, the brook dried 
up, and disappeared, leaving a low, dark, walled pas- 
sage, through which we could look from one side and 
see the light and the grass and bushes on the other 
side. The passage was as long as the width of the 
road, and not nearly high enough for us to stand up 
inside. 


SCHOOL, AND HOME AGAIN 


43 


“ I’m going- to crawl through,” said Nancy one 
day. “Do you dare?” 

“ I will, if you will,” said Bell promptly. I could 
never bear to be outdone by Nancy, if the enterprise 
lay within my powers. So Nancy crawled through 
first, on her hands and knees, while I watched and 
waited, breathless, to see if anything happened to 
her. Then it was my turn. How I wished Nancy 
had not dared ! It was dark in there, and the 
ground was rough and stony ; and I was horribly 
afraid of meeting a snake where it would be impos- 
sible to run away. And what if a team should 
come driving along overhead, and crush the earth 
and stones down to bury me ! 

But no team came near, and no snakes appeared 
in sight. One little cold toad hopped over my hand, 
and he was even more frightened than I to meet a 
little girl crawling through his quiet, underground 
street. 

“ I never saw such acting children,” said Elizabeth 
when we went up to the house. “ Look at those new 
stockings — just one mess of holes and dirt! /think 


44 WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 

they’d better be taught to walk on their feet on the 
top of the ground, instead of burrowing in holes like 
a woodchuck.” 

And mamma fully agreed with Elizabeth. 

One of the nicest days at our school was Exhibi- 
tion Day. Then the fathers and mothers came to 
visit school. The big boys borrowed chairs from a 
house near by for the visitors to sit in while we 
children sang and read and showed how fast we could 
reckon numbers. Miss Laura wore her prettiest white 
dress that day, and I • carried a big bunch of roses 
for her desk. 

Prue and Pink came visiting school that day with 
mamma, and sat on the platform at the end of the 
room. Nancy and I were so pleased when Miss 
Laura smiled at - the twins, and said she hoped they 
would some time come to school too. 

As for Prue and Pink, they did nothing but play 
school all the next week. 


When Bell was Sick. 



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BEING SICK. 


47 


CHAPTER VIII. 

BEING SICK. 

morning Prue did not feel very well, and 
mamma said she must stay in bed all day. After 
breakfast she felt worse, and papa sent Mike down 
town for the doctor. 

The doctor was a tall man with a gray beard and 
a very gruff bass voice. He came driving up the 
road in his covered buggy, and Nancy and Pink and 
I crowded to the sitting-room windows to see whether 
he brought any bottles of medicine. 

“ It’s too bad Prue’s sick,” said Pink. “ Now she 
can’t have any dinner, and we’re going to have a 
corn-starch pudding : Elizabeth said so.” 

It was many a long day before Prue had any 
pudding for dinner, and indeed many a day before 
we saw her again. She was taken into mamma’s 
room, and we were all shut out. The doctor came 


^8 - WHEN WE WEEE LITTLE. 

several times before she grew well enough to be 
dressed, and to have her breakfast carried up on a 
waiter. And then, just when Prue was ready to come 
down-stairs and play with us once more, it was I who 
woke up in the morning all hot and headache-y and 
miserable. 

“ Well,” said Elizabeth, “ I wouldn’t worry. Chil- 
dren have to go through these things. And Prue 
wasn’t so very sick, you know.” 

It was not half so interesting to be sick as I had 
imagined it would be. My throat hurt- me ; and when 
I was so warm it seemed as if I could drink a whole 
pitcher of ice-water, they made me keep even my 
arms all covered up tight in bed. I knew that Nancy 
was going down in the meadow for pussy-willows, and 
it was very forlarn to lie there in bed instead of 
racing off down in the meadow. Then the doctor 
came again, and looked at my tongue and felt of my 
wrist, and asked questions in his gruff voice of mamma 
as she stood by the bedside. And his medicines were 
sometimes very bad to take. 

Mamma used to let me hold her watch while I 


BEING SICK. 


49 


lay in bed. It was a beautiful watch, with a gold 
face on which was engraved a picture that I never 
tired of admiring. It represented a tall castle beside 
a lake, with mountains in the distance. When I held 
the watch so that the light fell on it in one particular 
way, all the picture looked bright and sunshiny, except 
the windows of the castle, which were quite shadowy 
and dark. And then I discovered that by turning the 
watch in another way the pictured lake and the moun- 
tains were made to grow dim, as if in twilight, while 
the castle windows shone as if the rooms inside were 
all ablaze with lighted lamps. 

When I grew better, so that I could sit up in bed 
with pillows behind me, and have my breakfast brought 
up on a waiter, Nancy used to read me stories from our 
red-covered Fairy Book. ’And one day papa brought 
home two little parasols, just alike, for Nancy and me. 
They were of black silk, with long handles, hinged 
in the middle so that they could be folded up smaller 
still. It made me even more anxious to get well 
quickly, so that I might go out to walk with my 
beautiful parasol. 


50 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


One day Nancy came home from school and said 
that the teacher had asked all the little girls to write 
compositions. I did not know what a composition 
was, but Nancy explained that it was just a story that 
we wrote ourselves ; either a true story about some- 
thing we had seen, or else a story made up out of 
our own heads. Mamma said I might write one too, 
if I liked, and send it to Miss Laura by Nancy. We 
had a fine time over it. Nancy took a big book in 
her lap for a desk, and I had mamma’s little stand 
with the drawers in it for my desk, because I had 
been sick. Everybody was very good to me in those 
days. Nancy wrote about the picnic that we had on 
the twins’ birthday, and I wrote about a fairy that 
lived in a hole in the ground. And after we had 
written our stories we made pictures to go with them. 
Nancy made a picture of us all eating our supper 
in the woods, and papa said when he came home 
that it was very nice. He knew which part of 
the picture was meant for him, because Nancy had 
drawn a moustache for him, and nobody else had a 
moustache. 


BEING SICK. 


51 


When Nancy took my fairy story to school, Miss 
Laura wrote me a letter, and said she was glad I did 
it, and she hoped I would get well soon. I used to 
keep the letter in my upper bureau drawer in a blue 
box with a picture on the cover. 


52 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


CHAPTER IX. 


GOING TO CHURCH. 


UR church was too far away for a Sunday walk. 



and Pink and Prue were very little girls, — too 
small to sit still long, — so we did not all go to 
church. Nancy and I used to go, and we told Pink 
and Prue all about it when we got home. 

Mike used to harness Katy into the carryall, and 
papa sat on the front seat to drive. Nancy and I 
used to take turns sitting on the front seat. It was 
very nice to help drive ; but it was nice, too, on the 
back seat beside mamma. Mamma looked pretty 
every day in the week ; but we specially liked to see 
her in the dress she wore Sundays, with lace about 
the neck, and a pink rose in her bonnet just the 
color of her cheeks. 

We rode out through the gate and down the vil- 
lage street, while the church-bells were ringing and 


GOING TO CHURCH. 


53 


people were coming out of their front gates carrying 
Bibles and hymn-books. Nancy and I used to make 
believe that the church-bells were talking, and saying 
to the people, “ Come — come — come — Be good — 
be good — Come — come — come ! ” 

Papa used to drive up to the steps of the church, 
and help us out ; then he took Katy across the street 
and tied her in a shed. After he had seen that 
everything was safe, he came back, and we went in 
together. The first thing we saw when we walked up 
the aisle was a big window of pale rose-colored glass 
away up high, in the wall over th^ pulpit. The win- 
dow was shaped like a rose too. There were other 
windows of colored glass in the side walls, but none 
of them ever seemed to me as lovely as the pale 
rose-colored one up over the minister’s head. The 
minister himself was a tall man with white hair. I 
could not always understand very well what he was 
talking about ; but I knew that when he folded his 
hands on the big Bible and said, “ Let us pray,” that 
he was going to talk to Our Father, the same Father 
to whom we said our prayers at home. Mamma had 


54 WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 

told US that if we liked we could say our own prayers 
then, so I used to say “ Our Father who art in 
heaven ” very softly to myself, and then sometimes 
make up another prayer of my own. And at the end 
the choir used to sing Ame^i. 

Nancy liked the singing best. There was a choir 
in our church, but the people sang too ; everybody 
sang. Sometimes, when the hymn was one of our 
favorites (we liked best “ How firm a foundation,’^ 
and one about 

— “ the sweet fields of Eden, 

Where the tree of Life is blooming”), 

mamma would smile, and bend down and say, “ Not 
quite so loud, Nancy.” There was a beautiful young 
lady who sat in the pew just in front ; and she sang 
very loud indeed, but I think she did sing better than 
Nancy. She had curly brown hair, and she was our 
Sunday-school teacher. But Sunday-school did not 
come till after church. 

Besides the prayer and the singing, the minister 
used to read out of the big Bible ; and quite often he 
read stories we knew, — about the Prodigal Son, or the 


GOING TO CHURCH. 

L.oaves and Fishes. Sometimes he read verses that 
we had learned in Sunday-school ; and then we felt 
very grand, because we could repeat them softly to 
ourselves while he read. And then after a while 
came the long sermon. Mamma used to let us study 
our Sunday-school lessons again in sermon time if we 
did not whisper over them ; and a part of the time 
we used to hunt in the New Testament for verses 
that we knew by heart. And I used to sit and watch 
the rose-colored window, and wonder how the minister 
ever learned so much. 

There was another hymn after the sermon. Every- 
body stood up and sang ; and then the minister 
stretched out his hands, and said another sort of 
short prayer. Mamma said it meant that v/e were 
to try to be good all the week, — grown-up people, 
and children, and all; and that the minister was sure 
God would love us and help us. And then the 
organist began to play again, and the gentlemen 
took up their canes and hats, and people began to 
shake hands with each other and go out. 

Our Sunday-school in those days was not a very 


56 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


large school, and we . did not have a ■ room of our 
own for our lessons. . The , different classes sat in 
pews down in the front of the church, close by the 
pulpit. There were five other little girls in the class 
with Nancy and me, and our teacher was the curly- 
haired young dady who sang so beautifully. She used 
to tell us a great many stories of Bible people and 
Bible times; and she often brought photographs 
and illustrated books to show us. I specially liked 
one picture of Jesus Christ when He^ was a little 
baby, in His mother’s arms, and two. fat little cherubs 
leaning on their elbows and thinking about Him. 
Nancy’s favorite was the picture of a man, — a kind 
of soldier with a long spear, killing a dreadful ani- 
mal with great teeth and a long tail. The animal 
was called a “dragon;” but our teacher said that 
there were really no such animals, Killing a drag- 
on just, meant overcoming some temptation to be 
naughty; and we . could all be soldiers in that way, 
even while we were little girls. And she told us 
how Jesus came and lived in the world to show 
people how to be good ;: and .she said that if we 


GOING * TO^ CHURCH. 


57 


ourselves' tried- faithfully to be. good,. we, were helping 
Him, and pleasing * God, and making the world, a 
happier, place -for all boys and girls to dive in. 

When ■ we rode . home after . Sunday-school, Pink 
and Prue always came part way down the road to 
meet us and tell us what they had been doing all 
the forenoon. 

“We’ve had a good time too; haven’t we, Prue?” 
Pink would say. 

And Prue would say, “ Yes. But Pd like to go 
to church too some time. We will when we’re big- 
ger, won’t we, mamma ? ” 

One Sunday the minister went home with us after 
church, and stayed to dinner. He had been a minister 
once in a far-away country, where there were tigers 
and elephants, and where it was one hot summer all 
the year round. He told us a great many stories about 
that queer country, and about the boys and girls who 
lived there, and their strange way of talking. 

“ But if they use such funny words to talk with, 
how does Our Father know what they mean when they 
say their prayers ? ” asked Bell. 


I 


58 


WHEN WE WEEE LITTLE. 


But the minister said Our Father could understand 
everybody, no matter what words were said. All 
boys and girls were His children, whether they were 
white or yellow or black ; and He took care of them 
all every day. 




Grandpa’s End of the Table. 


THANKSGIVING AT GRANDPA'S. 


6l 


CHAPTER X. 

THANKSGIVING AT GRANDPA’S. 

did not often enjoy a journey in the cars. 

When we went away from home at all it was 
usually in the big carryall, with Katy to take us 
down to the beach or through the green country 
roads. Our first experience of a long journey was 
when we went to spend Thanksgiving at grandpa’s. 

It was delightful to get ready for the visit. 
Miss Ball, the dressmaker, came to the house and 
worked for several days, finishing our winter clothes. 
She was a little, plump woman, with a round pin- 
cushion always dangling from her buttonhole. The 
pincushion looked just like a rubber ball, and it was 
by that we remembered her name. 

At last the day came on which we were to start. 
We were so afraid we should be late at the station, 
and so miss the train ! But there was just time 


62 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE, 


enough, and we all found seats close together in the 
cars. It was a long ride, and rather tiresome for 
the very little ones. Prue and Pink weat to sleep 
after a while ; but Nancy and I did not wish to 
lose any time in sleeping. We looked out of the 
window all the way, to see all the queer places and 
the pretty places, and the places where we should 
like to live. I was very eager to see just when 
we went from Massachusetts into New Hampshire. 
In my little geography, one State was colored pink, 
and the other yellow ; and I supposed there would 
be a high fence between them, with a gate for the 
railroad train to pass through. Of course I learned 
better when I had travelled. 

Uncle William and Joe were at the station to 
meet us. Cousin Joe was not much older than 
Nancy, but he could drive a horse all by himself. 
We rode up the long hill to the farmhouse ; and 
Aunt Lina came out to the piazza door, rosy and 
smiling, with three more little cousins hovering near, 
and white-haired grandpa beaming at us from over 
Aunt Lina’s shoulder. 


THANKSGIVING AT GTANBFA^S. 


63 

“ Now make yourselves at home, children,” said 
Aunt Lina, after the families had been duly counted 
up and measured and compared, to see which of the 
cousins were taller or heavier or older. “ Make 
yourselves at home, and have all the good times 
you can.” 

The first thing we eight children did was to play 
railroad out in the barn. It was a very long large 
barn, — bigger by far than any church we had ever 
seen. On either side of the open floor there were 
the horse-stalls and the “ tie-up,” where a dozen or 
twenty cows were fastened ; and grain-bins and farm- 
machines and tool-boxes and many other things. And 
above, on either side, great heaps of sweet-smelling 
hay were piled away up to the dim, dusky roof, 
with its cobwebby rafters. 

We named stations at different points along the 
sides of the open floor. An old “ stone-drag ” near 
the door was East Garrison, where our cousins lived. 
The first ladder leading to the hay-mow was Con- 
cord ; the farther barn-doors answered for Manchester ; 
the passage-way leading out into the cow-yard was 


64 WHEAT WE WERE LITTLE. 

Nashua ; and the harness-room, opposite the “ drag,’' 
was Boston. Our railroad train was a pair of old 
wagon wheels with the shafts attached; and we took 
turns in being the locomotive to help pull the train 
along, tooting and whistling, while the rest of the 
party were passengers, and got on and off at the 
different stations along the way. 

On the morning of Thanksgiving Day another 
uncle and aunt and two more cousins came to join 
the family party. Aunt Lina was busier and jollier 
than ever ; there was a delicious smell of turkey in 
the air, and a long white table was set out in the 
biof kitchen. Ten cousins in all, besides the orrown- 
up people, — no wonder the two turkeys were so big, 
and the pies so many! Uncle John made a great 
many jokes, and kept everybody laughing ; even sober 
grandpa forgot to finish his plum - pudding, as he 
listened to one of his son-in-law’s funny stories. 
Prue and Cousin Annie had the wishbones. 

Uncle John and his family lived only a few miles 
away, and they went home the next morning ; but 
we stayed a whole week. 


THANICSGIV/NG AT GTAJVBTA ’S. 65 

“To think these are all your children!” said grandpa 
to mamma when we came away. “How time flies! 
You must be sure to come up next summer.” 

When we were on the railroad train going home, 
Nancy and I sat in the last seat in the last car. It 
was more interesting than ever to watch the places 
that we passed, and see the railroad track, as we left 
it behind, bend around the curves of the river, or 
stretch swiftly away in the distance in long, long 
black lines, till at last the rails ran together in a 
sharp point. When we stopped at Nashua, papa said, 
“ I will get out and buy some more cookies.” 

The bell rang before he had returned to the train. 
The cars began to move slowly, slowly. He would 
certainly be left behind. What could we do ? The 
train was fairly in motion before he came hurrying 
out of the door of the restaurant with a paper bag 
in his hand. Then he began to run after us. 

“ Oh, I should think they might wait for him ! ” 
cried Nancy indignantly. And Prue began to cry, 
because she was afraid he would get lost, and we 
should never see him again. But papa had long legs. 


66 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


and could run very fast. He was gaining ; yes, — 
he had almost caught up with us. He ran still faster, 
and at last he seized hold of the rail beside the car 
steps, and pulled himself fairly upon the car platform 
outside our window. 

“ Here are your cookies, Prue,” he said. “ I guess 
they’re good ones.” 

And so we all reached home safe and sound. 

It was after dark when we rode up to the house 
at home. We. could see the light of the big lamp in 
the sitting-room as we went up the hill. Lion was 
wagging his tail to tell us what good care he had 
taken of Elizabeth while we were away ; and Buff was 
so glad to see us that he put his forepaws upon 
Prue’s shoulders and licked her cheeks. The old 
gray cat was glad to see us, too, and came purring 
to rub against our ankles. 

A great deal had happened while we were away. 
My white pullet had begun to lay eggs : Elizabeth 
had saved two beautiful clean eggs to show us. And 
Elizabeth had done more than that. She had made 
new winter dresses for our four best dolls. Elizabeth 


T//ANA’SGIV/NG AT GAAJVDPA^S. 67 

•could sew beautifully ; and those little flannel dresses, 
trimmed with narrow braid, were just like real people’s 
clothes. 

It was delightful to go away, but it was almost 
nicer still to come home again. 


68 


WHEN IVE WERE LITTLE. 


CHAPTER XL 
NAUGHTY GIRLS. 

I THINK on the whole we were fairly good chiL 
dren, but now and then we did have some foolish 
quarrel, or we got into some mischief. And those 
were sad times for everybody. 

Nancy and I had great trials over our clothes. 
Nancy, especially, cared a great deal about pretty 
clothes, and thought it quite unkind in mamma not to 
let her wear her Sunday hat and bronze kid boots to 
school. Mamma said our every-day shoes were the 
best for school. And we wore long light calico aprons 
over our dresses. But we did hate those aprons ! 

Once mamma went away for a few days, and left 
us in Elizabeth’s care. We got along pretty well until 
one morning Nancy and I took it into our heads to 
wear our best dresses to school that day. We talked 
it all over while we lay in bed, and decided that there 


NAUGHTY GIRLS. 5g 

Avas no real reason why Elizabeth should not let us 
do it. 

“ Elizabeth need not be so fussy,” said I. And 
Nancy said, “I am so tired of that horrid old pink 
gingham.” 

But when we asked leave, Elizabeth said, No, in- 
deed ; we were to put on the same clothes as usual, 
and be quick about it too. 

Just before school-time we decided what we would 
do. We ran up to our room without saying a word 
to anybody else, and put on our pretty white muslins 
trimmed with narrow edging, and our bronze shoes, 
and our chip hats with daisies around the crowns. 
We slipped down-stairs when Elizabeth could not see 
us, and ran out at the side door to go to school. 
Prue and Pink were taking their dolls to ride up and 
down the driveway. 

“ O-o-o-oh ! Is it Examination Day?” asked Prue. 
And Pink said, “ Pm going to wear my best dress 
too.” 

“ No, you can’t,” said Bell ; you’re too little. 
We’re the oldest, so we can. And mind you don’t 


70 WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 

tell Elizabeth : if you do, you sha’n’t play with my 
tea-set ever again ! ” 

We marched off to school feeling very grand and 
important. The other girls thought we looked very 
fine, and said they wished they could wear their best 
clothes to school too. But Miss Laura did not say 
anything about our fine clothes, as we had hoped 
she would. We both began to feel very sober as the 
forenoon went by. We knew we had been naughty, 
and it was not half so much fun as we supposed it 
would be. Harry Brown joggled Nancy’s elbow as 
he went by her desk, without meaning to do it, and 
three great blots of black ink fell on the front of 
her white dress ; and at recess, when we were trying 
to forget our troubles and have a good time playing 
with the others, I slipped and fell down, and tore a 
great piece of the ruffle from my skirt. Miss Laura 
pinned it up, and said she was sorry. We were sorry 
too. And when, after recess, it began to rain hard, 
we were so unhappy we could hardly keep from crying. 

“ I will lend you my other umbrella,” said Miss 
Laura after school ; and we were glad to take it and 


NAUGHTY GIRLS. 

save our hats. But the roads were muddy, and the 
grass in the long field was wet ; and long before we 
reached the house our thin kid shoes were quite 
ruined. 

“ You deserve to be punished well,” declared Eliza- 
beth when she saw us. “ Go straight up- stairs and 
take off those clothes, and put on your nightgowns 
and go to bed ! ” And we cried ; but we had to 
do it. 

When mamma came home she said she was sorry 
she could not trust big girls six and eight years old 
to do what they knew was right. That was pretty 
hard to bear. And that was not all. Because the 
white dresses and the bronze boots were spoiled, of 
course we had to wear our every-day dresses and 
shoes to church until it was time to put on our red 
plaids : there was no other way. And I think after 
that we were not quite so proud, or so fond of having 
our own way. 

Pink and Prue always played together, and did 
the same thines. If one was ofood, the other was 
usually good too ; and if one did what she ought not 


*-j2 WHEN- WE WERE LITTLE. 

to do, the other was pretty sure to help in the mis- 
chief, and be sorry for it afterwards. 

Their worst fault was meddling-. Once they went 
to the closet where the medicines were kept, and saw 
a big bottle with a glass stopper. Pink, especially, 
always wanted to look at everything in a box or a 
bottle, though mamma had told us all never to touch 
anything whatever in that closet without leave. 

“ It must be cologne,” said Pink. “ The stopper 
is something like the one in the bottle on mamma’s 
bureau. There is so much of it I do think I might 
have some on my handkerchief. I am going to take 
just a little.” 

“ I am going to have some on my handkerchief 
too,” said Prue. 

She pulled out the stopper, and hurried to take a 
long sniff before Pink should have a chance. 

Such a scream as went up from that closet! 
Mamma and Elizabeth and the washerwoman all came 
running to see what was the matter. The bottle did 
not hold cologne at all, but some queer, strong-smell- 
ing stuff that Elizabeth used for cleaning, and poor 


NAUGHTY GIRLS. 


73 


Priie was choked by it. Then Pink was so frightened 
that she screamed too, louder than Prue, and fell off 
the chair where she was standing, bumping her head 
against the half-open door. Prue really felt quite sick, 
as well as a good deal frightened. They both wished 
they had done as they were told, and let the bottles 
alone. 

Whenever we had done any of these naughty 
things, mamma used to tell us that we must listen 
closer to the little voice in our minds that told us 
not to do wrong. We knew very well what she 
meant. I know I often used to hear the voice, 
though I did not always mind it. I used to hear it 
often when the peach-trees were loaded with half- 
ripe peaches, which we were forbidden to touch. The 
hard ercen balls that fell on the Pfround under the 
trees were very tempting. I used to pick them up 
and feel of their velvety skins, and smell of them ; 
and sometimes I thought, “ I will eat just one. No- 
body will know.” 

And then it seemed as if something said to me, 
“ No, you must not do it. Mamma told you not to, 
and it would be very naughty.” 


74 


WHEN IVE IVEEE LITTLE. 


Mamma said it was my conscience that told me 
not to do it. She said that conscience was another 
name for God’s way of talking to us, and that if we 
wanted to grow up into good little women, we must 
listen to the voice and obey it. She said that grown- 
up people heard just such a voice talking to them, 
and that lesus Christ Himself, who was our Elder 
Brother, heard it too. And He always obeyed it 
perfectly. 



i ^ wins i j 












The Camp Fire, 


IN THE WINTER-TJME. 


77 


CHAPTER XII. 

IN THE WINTER-TIME. 

W HEN the leaves were all gone from the trees 
about the house, and the sunset sky was dull 
and gray, and there was a shivering chill in the air, 
then Elizabeth said, “ I do believe it is going to 
snow.” 

A snow-storm was a fine thing. Sometimes the 
big white flakes came sailing down very gently, and 
we ran out to the side door to catch them in our 
calico aprons, and see their tiny crosses and stars and 
wheels. Sometimes they came crowded so thick and 
fast that we could find no wheels and stars at all, — 
only whirling specks of white that made the air so 
thick we could no longer see the village across the 
pond, — not even by flattening our noses hard against 
the sitting-room windows. Then mamma let us set 
up our doll-houses around the great table in the din- 


78 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


ing-room. And sometimes Elizabeth helped make 
molasses candy. 

But when it cleared off the next morning, and the 
sunshine sparkled over white drifts, and the sleigh- 
bells jingled in the barn where Mike was harnessing 
Katy, then we expected a grand frolic. We squirmed 
into our cloaks, and tied on our hoods, and stamped 
into our long-legged boots, that were just like a boy’s 
boots, and then, with scarfs and mittens, we were 
ready. It was a flying procession, with Nancy for 
leader. I came next, and Prue and Pink came trudg- 
ine after as fast as their short lees and thick boots 
would carry them. We each had a sled. Nancy’s was 
a large one named Hunter. It had been used a long 
time, and its paint was battered and worn, but it 
would go much faster than any of the others. Mine 
was a gay red sled with slender swans’ necks curving 
up in front; that was the Hero. And Pink and Prue 
had their little sleigh, and a small brown sled named 
Kearsarofe. 

Once in a while, when papa went out with us, 
the sliding became something exciting. Then it was 


IN THE WINTER-TIME. 


79 

that we started with papa on the Hunter ; not all at 
once, but taking turns, — beginning at the top of the 
steep driveway opposite the side door, a place where 
we were never allowed to start by ourselves. Mamma 
came out to the door to see us off, and Elizabeth 
waved her towel from the kitchen window. One, two, 
three ! 

We whizzed down past the garden wall; v/e shot 
by the grape-vines and the four peach-trees; we turned 
the corner at the foot of the hill, holding our breath 
with excitement; and we went on and on down the 
smooth white road. No fear now of tipping over, or 
running off the wall or into the fence. Papa’s long 
legs and stout arms were equal to every possible dan- 
ger. If we shivered, it was never with cold or fear, 
only with delight. 

“ Now take me, papa,” Prue would call, her golden- 
red curls all blown about her rosy face ; and Pink 
would come trudging after, chubby and serene, al- 
ways good-natured and contented to be the last on 
the programme. And Buff barked and pranced, and 
Lion stood around in the way, wagging his tail and 
begging to be harnessed to every sled he saw. 


8o 


WHEN WE WE EE LITTLE, 


There was one particular winter adventure that I 
am sure we shall never forget. Nancy’s birthday 
came just two days after Christmas ; and one year, 
when the day came around, papa said we would cel- 
ebrate it by having a picnic at Glen Rock. 

It was a beautiful sunny winter day. The ground 
was all white with snow, but in the shelter of the 
deep woods it was cosey and warm. Papa and Mike 
carried heaps of carriage blankets and buffalo robes 
up through the woods to our favorite rock ; and 
mamma and Elizabeth packed a big basketful of good 
things to eat. 

“Now for a fire!” said papa. 

Mike had brought an axe along with the other 
things, and it was not long before great dead tree 
branches came crashing to the ground. The snow 
was swept away from a space beside the great 
rock, and in a few minutes a heap of papers and 
twigs blazed briskly. Then bigger sticks were 
thrown on. The wood crackled and the red flames 
danced, and whenever a handful of pine needles was 
tossed into the blaze there was a fountain of tiny 


IN THE WINTER-TIME. 


sparks like fireworks. We poked sweet potatoes in 
to roast among ^ the hot coals, and they were deli- 
cious to eat with the rest of our dinner. A big 
stick with a forked end was thrust into the ground, 
so that it leaned out over the fire, and on this 
mamma hung the tin pail of coffee. Never did 
anything taste so good as that December picnic 
dinner ! 

And the last of it was the best of it. Papa 

went back to the house for a little while, and he 
and Mike came back staggering under all the blan- 
kets and quilts and comfortables they could possibly 
carry. 

“I — don’t — know,” said mamma. “Do you really 
suppose the children will not take cold ? ” 

“ We’re going to stay all night ! Hurrah ! ” cried 
Nancy the wise, dancing in her mittens and tall boots. 
And so we were. 

Papa and Mike worked hard to build a hut out 

of trees and boughs, with the great gray rock for 

one side of the bedroom. The floor was all cov- 

ered with buffalo robes and blankets. The walls 


82 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


were all wadded and padded with comfortables and 
quilts. Mike thought we were dreadfully foolish. 

Good-by, Mike,” we called to him as he trudged 
off alone toward the house. 

It grew dusky in the deep woods ; and then it 
grew quite dark. The fire danced redder than ever, 
and through the tops of the tall trees we could 
see the stars dancing in the sky above. We roasted 
more potatoes in the hot coals, and toasted apples, 
each on the end of a long sharpened stick, and held 
close to the ruddy blaze. And we tried popping 
corn in the hot ashes. Then we sang all the songs 
we knew, and finally we crept in among the heaps 
of blankets, like little Indians. And the fire still 
flickered and flamed, and the stars looked down 
through the tall trees to see us asleep and dream- 
ing. 


HOW WE MOVED. 


83 


CHAPTER XIII. 

HOW WE MOVED. 

w E had supposed that we should always live in 
the big- house near the woods and the pond ; 
it was, therefore, a great surprise when papa asked 
us one day, how we would like to move away, and 
go to live in another house. 

“ And be down town, close to the stores and the 
cars ? ” asked Nancy. 

“And have a little bit of a dooryard, and other 
folks living real near us ? ” asked Prue. 

“ rd like to live next to a candy-store,” said 
Pink. 

Papa said it wasn’t exactly “down town,” — only 
part way. There were neighbors close by, and stores 
and schools, but yet there was a large yard ready 
for our playground. It was already decided ; and 
the very next week Mike was to begin to move the 
furniture, with Eldorado and the big express-wagon. 


84 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


Such fun as it was to see the carpets pulled up^ 
and the curtains pulled down, and all the books piled 
into boxes ! We helped stow away our playthings in 
other boxes ; and we packed our dolls' trunks with 
the greatest care. I meant to carry Jessie in my 
arms all the way, so that her beautiful head should 
not get broken ; and Jessie wore her cloak and bon- 
net a whole week, day and night, so as to be ready 
in season. Mike carried loads and loads of things 
away to the new house ; and, meanwhile, we helped a 
little, and bothered a good deal, and asked all the 
questions we could think of, and a great many more 
than mamma and Elizabeth could find time to answer. 

“ Will Buff ride in the carryall when we go ? ” 
asked thoughtful Prue. 

Now, that was a serious problem. Good old Lion 
was no longer with us. Fie had died in the spring, 
and was buried up in the woods, near Glen Rock. 
Buff was as happy and curly and silly as ever ; but 
Buff was not fond of travelling. Once when he 
followed the carryall away out to the gate by the 
street and the pebbly beach, a great yellow ice-wagon 


now WE MOVED. 

• went rumbling by, and frightened him so that he put 
his tail between his legs, and ran home; and since 
that day he had never been away from home at all. 
How could we carry Buff? 

“ We will see about that by and by,” said papa. 

It was a fine, sunshiny day when we left the old 
house. Just as soon as we were out of our beds 
that morning, the bedsteads had been pulled to pieces, 
and sent off on the express-wagon ; so it was high 
time we followed. The sound of our clattering feet 
echoed strangely through the bare, empty rooms ; 
and, though we were so delighted, there was some- 
thing very queer about the going away. 

“I — I guess I’m — sort of — sick to my stomach,” 
said Prue faintly. And I knew just the feeling she 
meant. It is something that grown-up people feel 
very often, as I have since found out, when they are 
ending pleasant times. 

But the new home was so different and so inter- 
esting that we forgot the queer sickness. This other 
house stood on a village street, with a balcony before 
the sitting-room windows ; two tall fir-trees grew in 


86 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


front of the balcony, and a long, flower-bordered path 
led from the door down to the street. We took 
dinner at the house of one of our neighbors, — who 
lived across the street. A little girl named Minnie 
lived there, — a girl just about my own age, and we 
grew to be the best of friends. She had a large 
wax doll named Cora Belle, and a maltese cat called 
“ Cap’n Parker.” 

It took several days to put all our carpets down, 
and arrange all the furniture and books and pictures 
in the new house. We spent the time running up 
and down stairs, dusting books, carrying hammers 
and screwdrivers to the people who needed them 
most, and planning where to keep our playthings. 
All this time Buff was staying all alone at the de- 
serted house across the pond. Papa and Mike had 
both tried to coax him away, but he would not come. 
He must have been very unhappy, for he scarcely 
ate any of the bones Mike left for him; and Duxbury 
Sands said afterwards that he could hear the lonely 
little doo- howlino- half the nieht. 

So at last papa took a big box in the express- 


HOW WE MOVED. 87 

wagon, and he and Mike went back once more to 
the old place. Mike caught Buff, and dropped him 
into the box, and papa nailed slats across the top, 
just like a chicken-coop; and so they came back with 
our old friend in his funny cage. 

Of course the cage and the noisy journey made 
the poor little fellow more 'frightened than ever; and 
when he was first taken out of the box, it seemed as 
if he had forgotten us. But Nancy caught him, and 
Prue began to stroke him, and we all came to pet 
him, and call him a good dog; so, on. the whole, he 
decided that he would not run back to keep house 
by himself, on the other side of the pond, but would 
stay and live with us in our new home. 



88 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


CHAPTER XIV. 

THE CANDY WOMAN- 

did not live next door to a candy shop, as Pink 
had hoped, but it was not far to Aunty Elder’s ; 
and there we went whenever we had a cent to spend. 

Aunty Elder lived alone in a wee bit of a black 
house on the next street, — a house with a front entry 
and two small rooms. But Aunty Elder herself was 
by no means small ; she was the biggest and stoutest 
and heaviest woman we had ever seen. When she 
walked across the floor the little house shook and 
trembled ; and when she had a new dress it took the 
whole width of a strip of calico to make the back of 
the waist, between her shoulders. She kept different 

kinds of candy in the two drawers of a little table 

between the front windows ; and a few pasteboard 

boxes piled upon the table held the rest of her 

sweet wares. When we went in to spend a cent or 


THE CANDY WOMAN. 89 

two, she rose slowly from her rocking-chair, — she was 
so stout and heavy that it took her a good while to 
move, — and pulled out both table-drawers, and took 
the covers off all the boxes, before she said a word. 
She knew we would wish to see all the different kinds 
first. 

Sometimes when we went in we found her taking 
a nap in the bedroom ; then, after whispering together 
by the half-open door, one of us would go in on 
tip-toe and pull her dress gently, to wake her up. 
She was always good-natured, and always let us take 
all the time we liked to decide about our purchases. 
When there are six or seven kinds of candy in sight, 
and only one cent to spend, it is a question that 
needs a great deal of thought. 

One thing which she used to keep in the boxes 
has since gone out of fashion. It was a sort of sugar 
toy made in the form of some animal, — a dog, or 
kitten, or rabbit, — sitting or lying on a little square 
mat. I suppose these things could not have been 
really made to be eaten, for they were gayly colored, 
and they tasted more like chalk than anything else ; 


90 


IV//EJV IVE IVEEE LITTLE. 


but we used to think them quite beautiful. When 
we first bought them we always meant to keep them 
for play pe’ts in the doll-houses ; but after a while 
the dog would lose one paw, and the cat’s tail would 
come off, and then we ate the rest to save it. 

Aunty Elder often spoke to us about a son who 
went away out West years and years before. “ I shall 
certainly have a letter from him next week,” she would 
say. And then, when no letter came, she was still 
cheery and hopeful. “ He must be very busy. But 
I am sure he will write before Christmas.” No letter 
ever came ; but we hope that she has found her 
absent son before now, and that he is good and she 
is happy. S'he was the most kindly soul alive, and 
she often gave us extra bits of molasses drops that 
had broken off in the table drawer. 



Playing Cinderella. 



FRIENDS AND DO LIDA VS. 


93 


CHAPTER XV. 

FRIENDS AND HOLIDAYS. 

'^HERE were several children living- near our new 
home. Minnie was the one we liked best. She 
had black eyes, and could sing very nicely, and she 
took music lessons. When we children began to go 
to our new school, I was put into the class with 
Minnie, so we became closer friends than ever. She 
and I used to make up a great many plays, as we 
went to and from school or ran on errands. 

One of our games was to make believe that we 
were grown up young ladies, and had fine-sounding 
names. She called me Ethelinda Percival, and I 
called her Isabella Montmorenci. We pretended that 
we always rode everywhere on horseback, and we used 
to carry little switches of goldenrod for riding-whips, 
tapping our petticoats elegantly as we galloped away 
down the street to the grocer’s. Minnie’s play-pony 


94 WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 

was named Zephyr, and mine was named Hazel. It 
was all very real and delightful to us; and we used to 
think it was a great joke that nobody but ourselves 
could see our ponies as we cantered along, or could 
know that our names were Isabella and Ethelinda. 

Then all one summer we did dressmaking for 
the fairies. We used to gather soft, velvety rose- 
petals, and bits of yellow buttercups, and strips of 
purple-and-white morning-glories, and pin them to- 
gether with thorns. Then we carried the fairy gowns 
and laid them under a certain flat stone down be- 
hind the lilac-bushes. Whether the fairies ever found 
and wore them I am a little doubtful ; but, at all 
events, they were sure to disappear after a little 
delay, and we made more to hide in the same 
place. 

The best game of all was playing “Cinderella” on 
Saturday afternoons. Minnie was always with us on 
half-holidays, so there were five children to take part 
in acting out the old story. Minnie was always Cin- 
derella, and Nancy was the Prince. I was the Step- 
mother, and Prue and Pink were the Proud Sisters. 


pRIENDS AND HOLIDAYS. 95 

Mamma let us take old shawls and long aprons to 
make long-trained gowns ; and up in the garret 
was a queer pointed hat of gay-colored straw, which 
made the Prince look very fine indeed. We made 

up the talking as we went along, and grew quite 

skilful at it. Prue and Pink learned to “ switch” 
their long skirts about very scornfully, and Cinder- 
ella cried as naturally as could be when I scolded 

her for letting the fire go out. 

Nancy had to play two parts, and be the Fairy 
Godmother as well as the Prince. She comforted 
Cinderella very kindly after the rest of the family 

had eone off to the ball ; and when she touched 
Cinderella’s clothes with the end of the old feather 
duster, we all understood that they were changed 
by magic from rags into the most gorgeous satin 
dress with a train. Then the feather duster was 
dropped, and Nancy put on the pointed hat and the 
waterproof cape, and became the Prince at the ball. 

Of course one must have music at a fairy ball. 
We had a little music-box that played “ Hail Colum- 
bia ” when one turned the crank ; and somebody had 


96 


WHEN WE WERE LITTLE. 


always to grind out the music while dancing. Prue 
especially liked to do that part, holding the little box 
up close to her ear. Sometimes her curls would get 
caught in the crank, and wind round and round in a 
dreadful snarl ; and more than once a little curl that 
could not be unwound at all had to be cut off and 
left clinging to the slender handle. 

So we danced to “ Hail Columbia,” and Cinder- 
ella pretended to lose her slipper, and the Prince 
found it. And by that time there was a rosy sunset 
in the sky opposite the balcony and the sitting-room 
window. The shawls were gathered up ; the Proud 
Sisters became once more round-faced little girls in 
calico aprons, and Cinderella said, “ My mother told 
me to come home at six o’clock.” And the Prince 
and the Stepmother hop-skipped with her as far as 
the front gate. 

Then Elizabeth called, “ Come, children ! Bell, you 
and Nancy may set up the chairs ; and, Prue, run 
and tell papa that supper’s all ready.” 




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